wolf children : Ame and Yuki chapter eight

we kept trying to grow our own food like the book said, and yet the crops still kept wilting. One day a car pulled up infront of our house and yelled " Excuse me, but is Hana Ookami here?" At the time me and Ame weren't used to other people besides me mother, so we ran into the woods. Mother ran over to talk to him " Um...hello, you must be the man everyone's mentioned about. We've just moved in a couple of weeks ago, we used to live in the city so it's a little strange for us to be surrounded by so much greenery." She turned to look at the forest then continued " But I think all this nature is good for us." he scoffed and said " Well nature just killed your crops, so how do you feel about that?" He continued " And stop smiling like that, it makes you look like a damn fool " Then he got back in his car and drove off, leaving my mom fighting to hold back tears.

After that he kept coming over to watch my mom plant crops. Sometimes after she planted rows , he would tell her they were too far apart and that she'd have to start over. My mother would work countless hours while he just watched. Because of this me and Ame didn't stick around too long , but instead explored the somewhat endless forest. The old man had told her to plant 10 crops for every 3 rows, " Why so many? It's not like we'll eat nearly this much." she said but he just staid silent.

When my Mother had finally followed all of his instructions, the next 9 weeks we had plenty to eat. Infact we had so much harvest that some of the neighbors traded with us. We got a fridge from growing spinach, and radishes from growing carrots. But i think the most surprisiing part was that our crops weren't eaten by the forest animals...well it was at least surprising to everyone else besides me and Ame. You see we may have been kids back then, but we could tell that Mother needed our help too. In the wild the more dangerous animals tend to mark their territory so that no smaller animals comes near for fear of being eaten. So yes, i peed all around the crops, it sounds terrible but i just wanted to help.